Where has my sun gone?
by celestialchihuahua
Summary: "The light in her life had long since vanished and she had resigned to her dire fate." - a quote from a story about the classic damsel in distress and not so happily ever afters. #Gruvia ... This is my first story, so please be critical but kind :)) Rated: T just in case
1. Chapter 1

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It was just a normal evening at the Fairy Tail guildhall. There was multiple bar brawls happening, tons of shouting along with the occasional string of swear words, and plenty of alcohol for everyone. If you moved on towards the bar where the beautiful barmaid was cleaning the counters, you would find Fairy Tail's resident ice-make mage having a heated conversation with a certain blue-haired, water mage.

"Juvia, please, I'm not interested in any of your new baking experiments!" Gray exclaimed in a very annoyed manner.

"But Gray-sama! Juvia baked these cookies especially for you!" Juvia clung to Gray with literal hearts in her eyes as she attempted to force him to eat one of the homemade cookies.

"I'm not eating anything with my face on it!", and after a moment's pause, "Or anything that has your face on it!"

Juvia watched as her precious Gray-sama walked off to start an argument with Natsu over something as unimportant as usual. She turned around with a small sigh and walked over towards the guilds large doors.

" _Perhaps it is time for Juvia to head back home for the night."_ she thought as she walked out into the warm evening breeze.

The journey home was uneventful for Juvia and left her with plenty of time to think about her beloved Gray. With him fresh in her mind, she walked up to her room in Fairy Hills and opened the door. Being the only one in the whole building at home was quite unsettling in its eerie silence. Upon entering she was greeted by hundreds of hand sewn Gray dolls that she'd made to make up for his constant absence. Picking one of them up, she walked over towards her bed and tucked it under her covers.

"Just a moment dear Gray-sama. Juvia is only going to get ready to turn in for the night." she spoke to the doll, imagining it was the real thing, with a soft tone.

She turned her heel to race to the bathroom. Pulling on her favorite pajamas, which consisted of a light blue t-shirt and gray sweatpants with a raindrop pattern adorning them, she quickly got ready to retire into dreamland. Once she was content with her routine, she rushed over to her warm, navy covers and pulled them over her shivering form.

" _Juvia wonders if her room has always been this cold."_ It felt similar to the inside of a freezer. In fact, she could see a white cloud every time she exhaled.

Deciding it was just a malfunction with the cooling system, she buried herself deeper under the covers to ignore it. Eventually, a deep, yet not entirely comfortable, sleep overtook her. However, unbeknownst to her, she was not alone anymore.

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 _The Next Day, at the Guild._

Gray walked in at his usual time to be greeted by the rambunctious gang of wizards he'd become so fond of. Of course, he'd never admit that out loud.

"Hey! Ice Princess!" Natsu called out with a face splitting grin, "Come over here and fight me!"

"Screw that ya pyro!" Gray shouted back with an annoyed façade, "I'm hungry!"

With that being dealt with Gray continued walking until he reached Mirajane, already working, at the bar.

"Hey Mira, can I get something to eat?" he asked with false nonchalance.

"Of course!" Mira beamed at him, bright and cheery as always. "I'll have something for you in no time."

"Thanks." was all he had the forethought to growl out. Something was missing, or should I say, someone. "Mira, have you seen.. Juvia.. around?"

Mirajane turned away from where she was preparing Gray's order, "Actually, no." , she placed his food in front of him, "I haven't seen her since yesterday." suddenly a very scary grin made its way across her face, "Why do you ask?"

With a small grunt of stubbornness, Gray took his food to go sit with his team. As he walked towards their table his thoughts kept wandering towards the absence of his overly cheerful and ever present stalker. Taking his seat next to Erza he decided that she was probably just busy doing something creepy and would come by the guild later.

 _The next day.._

It had been a whole day without even a single sign of Juvia. Gray couldn't help but start to worry. He'd already asked most of his guild members if they knew her whereabouts but everyone had the same answer. Nobody knew where she was, or seen her since a few days before. They had all been quite busy and wrapped up in their own lives that most of them failed to notice her absence. All except for Gray of course. He was really starting to get worried about her, but being as stubborn as he is, he decided to ignore it.

" _She'll probably be back tomorrow with some excuse about being busy or something."_ Gray just kept on repeating this to himself as he walked home to get some rest.

That's what he kept telling himself for a grand total of three whole days. But Juvia didn't show up that day or the next, and on the final day he couldn't take it anymore. He stood abruptly from his chair where he sat talking with his teammates.

"I'm going to take a walk." was all he said to his team's concerned looks. The reality was that he was so worried about Juvia and none of the other Fairy Hills residents would investigate for fear of being caught snooping by the water mage or Erza herself.

He stormed out of the guild with a new purpose in mind. Walking all the way to the Fairy Hills dorm he just went straight inside, deciding that Juvia's safety was more important than the rules. Although, he was very careful to avoid Titania's wrath by being caught in the girls only dorm. He had been wandering the halls for awhile when he finally found a door that looked as if it could be Juvia's room. After all.. there was a very large heart stuck to it with the names "Gray and Juvia" written in the middle. Deciding to ignore that, he went to open the door to her room. As he was reaching for the doorknob he noticed some strange looking scuff marks coming from under the door. Though they were hardly visible if you had just walked past without a second glance.

" _What the…"_ he thought as he turned the knob and stepped into the room.

He could see that it most certainly was her room. It was decorated in her taste. However, it was hard to see any remnant of how it once looked through the disaster it was now. It was a wreck. The walls were decorated with slashes and rips. All of what seemed to be Juvia's wardrobe was strewn haphazardly around the room. Any furniture that she owned was flipped over and thrown everywhere. The whole place was covered in evidence of a battle, blood (Gray wasn't sure exactly who it belonged to) was splattered across the floor, the walls, and had somehow even managed to get all over the roof.

"Juvia…" Gray whispered under his breath as his body shook in disbelief and anger.

He turned and rushed all the way back to the guild at max speed. As he raced down the streets of Magnolia all eyes were on him. Only the occasional food cart or pedestrian got in his way and they ended up being dodged with unbelievable agility. Once he reached the guild doors he threw them open with a deafening bang causing all heads to turn to his panting form.

"EVERYONE * _huff_ * I JUST WENT TO LOOK * _pant_ * FOR JUVIA!" he yelled at the top of his lungs as he stood trying to catch his breath, "She's gone..."

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	2. Chapter 2

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 _Somewhere deep underground…_

All Juvia could register about her surroundings was that it was dark and very cold. The silence was almost deafening, but it was far better than when the screams of her fellow prisoners echoed throughout the damp walls. If you had asked her how long she had been stuck in that cold, awful cell she would not have been able to tell you. Perhaps it had been days or maybe even weeks. Without the sun to show her whether it was night or day it was easy for her to forget. By now Juvia had started to associate any light with pain, since the only source of light she had received since her arrival was brought along by her tormentors. If it was bad listening to her fellow prisoners scream, then it had to be far worse when they listened to her do the screaming instead. Being there, all alone, had started to drain every ounce of hope and positivity from her. Every beating, every cutting wound, and every bruise slowly pulled the life from her small, now frail form. That, and the fact that her captors had connected her to some kind of magic draining device. She just didn't have the strength to keep up with the constant depletion of her magic reserves. Soon she'd be completely out of magic and then there would be nothing keeping her alive, especially since she was only given food and water once a day in small quantities. Suddenly there was a small noise coming from the hallway. Her head snapped up with the slightest glimmer of dying hope in her eyes. Hope that it was her guild and her beloved Gray-sama coming to rescue her from this living hell. But alas, it was not to be, the only thing that stepped into her dingy cell was her personal tormentor coming to bring her more excruciating pain and anguish.

"Well hello there little rain woman," the man, concealed from Juvia by a cloud of magic that seemed to cling to him like a cloak of pure darkness, said with a sneer, "Ready to begin our fun?"

The only sign of Juvia even hearing his words was a small twitch of her finger and an extremely weak, barely noticeable tug at her chains. The horrible man that brought her only pain stepped closer to Juvia. Pulling a very well used whip from somewhere near his hip as he went to work. That's when the screams started as they always did. Even though her throat was sore and swollen she still couldn't hold back her screams of agony. Sometimes he would pull back from his "activities" just to sneer at her and remind her that this was a revenge she supposedly deserved before he would continue with his various forms of torture. He was always careful to make sure her chains were intact and that the machine was drawing constantly from her magic so there would be no way she could possibly fight back. The room echoed with her painful screams and his disgusting laughter until finally she couldn't hold on to her fleeting consciousness and allowed herself to fall into the dark abyss of nothingness.

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It took months for Gray to gather all of the information he needed to find Juvia's location and just as long to gather up a rescue team with a plan. After his long search for answers and clues finally started getting some results he found out that it had been an entire branch of dark guilds that had stolen her away from him. The reason that was given for this act of "revenge" when Gray interrogated anyone suspected of being involved before giving them to the magic counsel to be dealt with was that during her time with the Phantom Lord guild Juvia had led a successful attack against that very same branch. Over the course of a single week she had been victorious in destroying its existence, or so it was assumed. Which to him was an amazing feat however, the survivors of the attack decided that revenge was the only answer to sure their anger towards Juvia in particular and they successfully rebuilt the branch of dark guilds from nothing. It took them years but the drive they had for enacting revenge against her in particular kept them going. They had even managed to recruit many more wizards to fight for their cause. Once they had finished their rebuilding, they had immediately set out to capture Juvia and they obviously they were successful. But even with all of this new information Gray had been unable to get her current location from any of the members as they were all hellbent on exacting their revenge against her. So, after more digging, he finally found a lead that took him straight to a small castle in the forests off the town of Hargeon. Knowing that she had been so close to him this whole time was quite frustrating for Gray. However, he had quickly enlisted the help of a rescue team that consisted of him, Natsu, Erza, Lucy, Wendy, Gajeel, and the exceeds. As soon as the guild was notified of their intention to rescue Juvia, they were off.

"So. Gray. What exactly is the plan?" they were on the train making their way towards Hargeon when Lucy asked the most important question possible.

"I'm not really sure there is a plan," Gray admitted, "But I know for sure that we are going to save Juvia and kick all of their dark guild's asses."

"Gray. We know that you are very worried and upset right now, but there needs to be some type of plan of attack." Erza stated.

All of the motion sick dragon slayers mumbled that they agreed with what Erza had just said.

"Alright, fine," they could tell that Gray was struggling to hide his emotions and his agitation with them as well as himself, "How about this then. Erza, Natsu, and Gajeel will distract them by launching an attack in the main rooms while Lucy, Wendy, and I go find Juvia. Then, when the rest of the guild comes to kick their asses for harming one of our members, Wendy and I will take Juvia back to the infirmary in town."

"Sounds like a decent plan." Erza said while Lucy nodded her head in agreement.

After that all Gray could do was sit and wait impatiently for their arrival in Hargeon.

" _I'm coming for you Juvia. I promise."_

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Juvia watched as one of her captors stood in the corner of the room silently watching the torture that was being performed on her limp body. Various types of pain were coursing through her weakened form, there was no end. Her vision was starting to fill with black spots as unconsciousness creeped upon her once again. Before she could pass out, Juvia became aware that the sting of the whip on her body was now absent and the two awful people were leaving the room discussing the progress being made on some kind of plan as they slowly and painfully killed her. The magic depleting machine was still attached to her but there was less and less magic available to take. It was a miracle that she'd held on for so long, or at least it felt as though she'd been there for awhile. Dangerously low on magic energy and beaten to all of her physical limits she was most definitely dying. The people in charge of this whole mess made sure of that. Slowly and agonizingly painful. That's how they decided she'd be allowed to leave this world. At this point she had already forgotten the feeling of the warm sun on her fair skin, the feeling of freedom, and the feeling of hope. The light in her life that Gray gave her had long since vanished and she had resigned to her dire fate. _No one was going to come. No one was going to save her. She was surely going to die all alone in captivity._ Finally allowing the darkness to consume her, she began to lose consciousness. Suddenly, in her not entirely aware state, Juvia barely heard the sounds of fighting in the hallway outside her heavy, steel cell door. The sounds of fists and of magic reverberated through the cell walls quietly. Then suddenly the door to her cell opened allowing in a bright light, and in its doorway stood her truly beloved.

"Gray-sama?..." she managed to breathe out before the darkness completed enveloped her.

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 **Author's Note:**

 **Sorry that it took so long to update! I was away on a trip in Seoul for a few days, but finally here's a new chapter! I hope you enjoy and keep watching for a new update ;)) I wonder what will happen next...**


	3. Chapter 3

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It was the look in her eyes that had stopped Gray there in the doorway, or more like the look that WASN'T in her eyes. There was absolutely no emotion in her facial expression as he opened the door and took a step into the dingiest cell he had yet to lay eyes on before. Juvia's face was completely blank, but her eyes held an expression of sorrow and lost hope. None of her old exuberance was left to be found. Even though it had been many months before he had a sufficient amount of information to even find her, Gray hadn't expected her to be so lifeless. Perhaps a bit shaken as it was a traumatizing experience.. But nothing like she was now. Juvia was clothed in only a tattered t-shirt and some very worn shorts. They were stained with new and old blood as was her body. The beautiful blue hair that Gray secretly adored was dirty and limp all of its once vibrant coloring faded into an almost gray color. Her soft, fair skin was bloody and bruised after being beaten so cruelly for so long. Juvia's wrists, ankles, and her neck were all chained to the cell walls almost suspending her in the air to where one could see that she was no longer able to support herself anyways. The shackles on her right wrist were different though, they were connected to some sort of large machine that was sitting in the corner. In the center of this golden contraption was a sort of blue magical energy that greatly resembled a body of water contained in a huge glass ball.

" _That must be Juvia's magic energy… but what could they possibly need THAT for?,"_ Gray thought to himself, " _I thought that they were only seeking revenge.."_

Just as Gray had that thought, the glass sphere began to glow a radiant golden color that, in a way, reflected Juvia's magical essence in its purity. The magical energy that had once occupied that space suddenly disappeared somewhere that was unknown to Gray. However, to him, Juvia's safety was far more important than finding out where the extracted energy had disappeared to and she really wasn't looking very promising at the moment. Getting over his initial shock at finding her in such a weakened condition, he rushed to her side.

"Juvia?!" Gray began to tug fruitlessly at her bonds while attempting to rouse her into consciousness. Taking a step back he shouted, " _Ice-make Lance_!"

Gray's icy magic cut through the chains and Juvia's limp form fell into his open arms. Careful not to cause further damage to her, Gray removed the shackles from her ankles, neck, and left wrist. The bond around her right wrist however proved difficult to remove. It seemed to have fused itself to her skin as a way to extract her magic quickly and more efficiently. In the end Gray decided to leave that one there so he would not harm her.

"Oh Juvia… I'm so sorry.." He whispered to her unhearing body with a tearful gaze and a trembling body, "This is all my fault. If only I'd been here sooner..."

Rising to his feet with Juvia lying motionless and cold in his arms Gray left the horrible room to find his comrades. It was decided. Not a single one of these awful people was going to get away with harming his nakama.

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 _Let's travel back in time to when our heroes first arrived at the train station some time ago…_

When the train arrived at the station in Hargeon, the rescue team made certain to be the first one's off. They immediately moved away from the concentration of people that were getting on and off of the passing trains. Only stopping once they were far enough to regroup themselves in private.

"Okay. So let's review the plan once more," Erza immersed herself into the role of the leader even though it had been Gray that had organized the rescue mission. "While Gray, Lucy, and Wendy go to search for our comrade it'll be up to Natsu, Gajeel, and I to distract them until our backup arrives."

"We already know the plan! Let's go kick some bad guy booty!" Natsu yelled as he sped off in the direction his nose was telling him to. Or at least he tried to go that way, someone had stopped him by grabbing the back of his shirt collar.

"Not so fast ya numbskull," Of course it had to be Gajeel that grabbed him this time. "This mission is real important to Gray so we need to be smart about this."

At this statement all of their heads automatically turned towards Gray who was standing next to Lucy and Wendy. However, he didn't seem to be paying much attention to them as he was just as anxious for action as Natsu was. Deciding that it would be best for them to get moving, Erza gave them all the "go ahead" signal. As soon as they saw this, they all followed Natsu as he used his nose to take them in the right direction. Using the trees for cover they sped towards the dark guild's main base where they were keeping Juvia under lock and key. Silently as possible, which wasn't very quiet because they had brought Natsu along with them, they crept towards the large front doors of the base. The building was large, and gothic. Everything one might expect from a dark guild's headquarters.

"Okay. Everyone knows the plan, make sure you find her Gray," Erza looked at him quite seriously, Gray looked back just as serious to reassure her of his success. "On my mark…"

But she didn't even have to give the "go ahead" signal because Natsu had already knocked the door down at the first word. Gray grabbed Lucy and she got a hold of Wendy as he started to run along the wall to the left while the others began their distraction. It was certainly an extravagant display and it was obvious that both of the girls wanted to go back up the others against such a large group of enemies. But both of them stuck to the plan, and it was a good thing because not too long after the fighting had begun the rest of the rescue team showed up. The rest of the rescue team refers to the entire Fairy Tail guild. One of their nakama had been taken from them and they weren't about to sit idly by while she was in trouble.

"Alright children! Let's do this!" The Master bellowed and received a chorus of cheers and battle cries in response.

That was the last thing Gray saw before he started running down a different corridor, farther and farther from the battle.

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Running to the end of the hallway Gray and the girls come to a large, rather creepy, wooden door. Opening it wide enough for all of them to squeeze through quickly, they were met with another hallway. Only this time instead of an empty corridor, it was long stretch of more doors. All of the doors looked exactly the same. Each was large and made of steel, with a slot at the top where a person outside of the door could open it and peer into the room.

"I guess we'll just have to try every door until we find Juvia-san.." Wendy's sweet voice whispered. This comment earned a groan from Lucy who didn't want to go through all that work.

"No. I don't think that's such a great idea Wendy," Gray mumbled as his eyes scanned the hallway. "I think these are all prison cells of some type." This time there was a gasp and a horrified expression from Lucy.

Just as the revelation about the truth behind the doors came to them, one of the cells towards the end of the long hallway opened. From the opening stepped two large men. One of them was cackling while the other followed behind him silently.

"You did a great job snatchin' that girl, Lucifer!" The cackling man told the dark figure that followed him. "She's the best plaything I've had in awhile!"

This drew a disgusted sound from Lucy and a horrified gasp from little Wendy. Gray just glared daggers towards them.

"Yes thank you, Bates. That's quite enough coming from you now." The man, Lucifer, snarled at the cackling figure. "However, it's still not enough. My thirst for vengeance is not yet quenched. And it won't be until that tiresome brat and her idiotic guild has been burned to the ground."

"Don't ya worry boss! We'll have 'em begging for mercy in no time, 'sides they're weaklings anyways." The man, Bates, responded with more awful cackling.

Gray couldn't stand there any longer. "Hey! You two! Who are you talking about?!"

The two men whipped their heads in his direction. The man who had been cackling a moment before had an expression of shock, and the other who seemed to be the superior of the first merely looked impassive.

"It's none of you business little boy." Lucifer sneered while Bates grinned at them.

"Like hell it's none of my business! Who are you talking about? And what were you just doing in that room?!" Gray lost his cool and bellowed at the two obviously disgusting men.

"Well ya see kid, we was actually just finishing up a little torture session," Bates grinned lopsidedly at them. "I don't remember the name of the little wretch. Oh wait, yes I do. I think it was something like… Juvia." He began his raspy cackling again.

"What did you just say?…" Gray's eyes narrowed and an icy mist began to emanate from his clenching fists. He crouched into a fighting stance facing towards the two men, the girls mimicked his action from behind him.

"Well it looks as though he means to start a fight," Lucifer chuckled mildly, turning to Bates. "Why don't you annihilate them while I go check on the rest of the guild." With that last comment he vanished into thin air.

"Looks like I've been left with the privilege of destroying ya." Bates uncontrollable cackling began once again.

With a murderous expression Gray launched himself towards Bates, swinging his now icy fist towards his infuriating face only to be met by thin air.

"What the-" Gray managed to get out before he was kicked from behind with crushing force that threw him to the end of the hall. Bates had vanished and reappeared behind him.

"Ha! What a weakling!" Bates cackled. Magic energy was clinging to him like a dark cloud now. "Bet ya didn't know I use Shade magic!"

"You bastard.." Gray got to his feet, wiping the blood from his lips.

Both of the girls rushed forward to fight with him, but Gray waved them away with a hand gesture. He stood and moved back into his original stance as Bates cast the first attack.

" _Shade Magic! Black Cloud!_ " Bates cast a large black cloud of thousands of tiny, sharp crystals.

" _Ice-make Shield_!" The shower of crystals was blocked for the most part but a select few created thin cuts along Gray's skin.

"Not bad for such a weak wizard." Another fit of laughter. "Not that it matters because I'm about to wipe you out of existence!" He was distracted with his own ego. Now was the time to strike.

" _Sky-dragon's Roar!_ " " _Open Gate of the Lion. Leo_!" " _Ice-make Lance_!"

After the dust cleared in the area that Bates had once stood. The only thing left was the charred, frozen, and beaten figure that was the horrible man.

"You were saying?" Gray smirked as he stepped and stumbled a little.

"Gray! Are you alright? Do you need me to heal you?" Wendy fluttered worriedly.

"No Wendy, I'm fine." Gray only gave her a small answer because his attention was already turned towards the door the men had come from. " _Juvia?.._."

Slowly, Gray walked towards the cursed door. Tentatively he reached for the handle while the girls made sure that Bates wasn't going anywhere. Turning the handle he slowly pushed open the door. He took a step in and was greeted by a faint:

"Gray-sama?..."

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 _Author's Note: Wow! Can you believe what happened?! Please let me know if you want me to continue this :)) I already have tons of new story ideas!_


	4. Chapter 4

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 _Now back to the present…_

Rising to his feet with Juvia lying motionless and cold in his arms, Gray left the horrible room to find his comrades. It was decided. Not a single one of these bastards was going to get away with harming his nakama. Gray carefully walked towards the door so that he would not jostle Juvia and cause her any further pain. Once he'd reached the exit, Lucy and Wendy caught sight of him and their eyes travelled down to the very injured Juvia lying still in his arms. Lucy gasped and her hand flew to her mouth as her eyes widened to the size of saucers. After getting over her initial shock, Wendy was the one who finally flew forward to examine her incapacitated comrade.

"Gray! I need to heal her! She's not in very good condition! If we don't get her some medical help right away she's not going to make it!" Wendy breathed out quickly.

"I know that Wendy, but right now we're in the middle of a warzone and we can't put her down here," Gray insisted, knowing that not only was it not the plan but it would also leave a high risk of injuring Juvia more. "We have to stick to the plan and get out of here. Lucy you'll have to cover us since I need Wendy for Juvia. She's strong. I know she can pull through this."

"I got it…" Lucy mumbled in a daze, her wide eyes still not leaving Juvia.

Quickly, they gathered themselves and began to move swiftly through the base towards a close hotel in town. Having decided that asking Porlyusica and Wendy to heal any injuries was quicker, they rushed back to the hotel that Porlyusica and a small team had found for the aftermath. It was clearly a better decision than a non-magical hospital. The plan was that once they reached the hotel where a makeshift infirmary was, Juvia would stay there while Gray and Lucy went back to the battle. Wendy would stay to help the medical processes going on there. For now, the small group was rushing through hallways, past rooms where one could hear fighting happening, and towards the exit that leads in the direction of the infirmary. Both of the girls were at Gray's sides, making sure that no harm could come to Juvia. Gray hurried along being careful not move Juvia and worrying about her at the same time.

Suddenly, the little groups of heroes came to the end of a hallway that had only one door. The door was large, the wood and the metal that it was made of seemed to frozen over as rolls of icy fog came off.

"I sense a familiar magic through there… almost… like my own." Gray whispered to the girls with his eyes looked on the precarious situation.

"This is the only way through. If we take the longer way around Juvia won't be able to make it, we have no choice." Lucy stated with feigned confidence, "Even if we have to fight our way through."

So, Lucy stepped forward and placed her warm hand to the frozen surface. The door swung inwards without effort.

"I've been expecting you. And look at that, you've brought my little prisoner along!" The room rang with malevolent laughter.

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The peals of laughter didn't cease as the group took their first tentative steps into the room. In the center, there was a dark shadowy figure that they had seen before. The laughter was emanating from the one that Bates had called Lucifer. Gray took a quick assessment of the room before refocusing on the figure before him. Behind Lucifer there was a door through which he could see sunlight. The rest of the room was bare, just the stone walls encased them in that pocket of the base.

"Prisoner?" Gray snarled, "Juvia is no one's prisoner. She is a proud member of Fairy Tail! If you think I'm going to let you get away with this you've got another thing coming."

Gently, Gray bent down and placed Juvia close to a wall where she'd be farthest from any fighting. Slowly, he stood and took a fighting stance. Lucy followed his example as her hands went to hover over her precious keys, but Wendy went to take a protective stance in front of Juvia. She'd only join if the awful man went after the vulnerable figure behind her.

"You mean to fight me? Hah! I normally wouldn't bother myself with such unimportant insects.. However, you happen to have my prize in your possession," Lucifer examined his nails and sneered, "Her screams satisfy me, and I require her magic to finish my little pet project."

"Well you can't have her. She is ours." Gray growled, "What project could possibly require you to drain an innocent girl of her life so cruelly?"

"Well wouldn't you like to know!" Lucifer grinned with power over Gray's slight curiosity, "It's actually going to be my final revenge over that _disgusting_ water mage."

All of the sudden Lucifer paused. Something seemed to be communicating with him in his head. The way he looked like he was listening to something though there was no one to be heard. A dark, crazed look passed over his face.

"I'd love to stay and have some fun, but it seems something has come up. Another time puny children, and you can even take that insufferable brat with you, my revenge will come soon enough." And with that being said, Lucifer disappeared in a cloud of icy mist.

"What?! He can't just leave! I wanted to kick his ass for what he did to my girl!" Lucy began pouting as her hand dropped to her side.

"No time for that! We have to go! Juvia's heart beat is dangerously slow and faint!" Wendy began a frantic attempt at moving Gray.

"Let's go!" Gray scooped Juvia up into his arms quickly. Her shivering becoming even more weak.

They pushed their way outside and ran as fast as they could to the hotel. Juvia's hand fell limply to her side.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

 _In the hotel room, Porlyusica works quietly, quickly by herself.._

Shuffling her feet, Porlyusica sets up the medical station the best she can without knowing the condition her patient was in. She prepared for the worst though she didn't feel there was any reason to worry. Wasn't it just a simple kidnapping? She continued arranging everything perfectly, mixing herbal solutions for every possible situation, sterilizing her tools, and conserving her magic. Soon she thought she heard the sound of hurried running outside the door. Just as Porlyusica turned to investigate the door burst open.

"Quickly guys! Porlyusica! Where do you want me to set her?!" Gray ran in frantically. Never before had anyone seen so many emotions present on his face.

"Here. Calm down. Place her here." Porlyusica said cooly although she could see that the girl was in very bad condition and hardly hanging on to life.

Porlyusica began barking orders, and Wendy rushed to help her. As soon as Gray had placed Juvia in the hospital bed, he and Lucy were shooed out. The door slammed shut. Gray stood staring at the closed door, his face blank and his eyes clouded over.

Lucy looked at him, "Gray…"

"This is all my fault Lucy… all of it.. If I had just been kind and not upset her she'd never have been on her own." Gray mumbled as a single tear tracked down his cheek, "How could I be so heartless and cruel? She was only trying to be kind. Always so kind." The single tear became uncontrollable sobbing.

Lucy stepped forward and tenderly put her hand on his shoulder, "Gray.. none of what has happened was solely your fault. It was all of us. Not a single person thought to look for her but you. Even then, we hadn't noticed a piece of us missing." She spoke to him softly with love like that from a comforting sister, "Please, don't blame yourself. Juvia is strong and nothing could ever keep her down. Now let's go and avenge her! The battle awaits."

Gray listened to Lucy's advice, and turned to give her a hug, "Thanks Lucy… you're right. Let's go!"

Wiping his tears, Gray and Lucy ran back towards the base.

" _I'm going to destroy whoever was responsible for this._ "

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••


End file.
